5 | MYSTERIOUS HERO

The flight was awfully quick and the trip to the hotel was super fun. They took a boat on the river to the entrance of the hotel. Though the hotel was old and seemingly broken down, Val was in awe of Venice. Peter thought it was super cute seeing her eyes scan the entire city they passed. She was astonished that Venice's roads were made of water. And how old the city seemed.

Peter hopped out of the boat, then helped Val out, too, by grabbing her hand and pulling her up to him. They walked into the hotel together and nearly cringed at the sight. It was so bad. There was about a half inch of water flooding the entire first floor. Mumbles of distaste came from the crowd of students. "Okay, everybody! Drop your bags off, we're going to meet at the da Vinci museum three, let's go!" One of their science teachers shouted. Everyone climbed the stairs to find their rooms and drop their stuff off.

* * *

Soon after, they all took off to the streets of Venice to take pictures and do tourist like things. "Peter! Take a photo of me!" Val posed by a dock of boats. Peter seemed distracted by something, as he hadn't been paying attention when she shouted for him. "Peter!!" Val waved her hands at him.

Peter shot his head at her and broke away from his train of thought. "Oh! Sorry!" He pulled out his phone, and Val readied herself. She stuck out her leg, placed her hand on her hip and smiled widely.

"Got it!" Peter announced, then waved her over to check the picture. Val scurried over and pushed her long hair out of her face to see it. "Pepper's gonna love it. Morgan is gonna be soooo jealous when she sees all those boats. She's been obsessed with boats recently." Val smiled at Peter. After losing her parents, even her godfather Tony, Valdís had no one left to take care of her. Her mother, Amelia, died fighting alongside Tony Stark to destroy Thanos and the infinity stones, once and for all. Her father, Steve Rogers, decided to take off back to the 1940s to reunite with Amelia, the love of his life. He must've thought Valdís was capable enough to care for herself without him. She was going to be forced to grow up into an adult and take care of business, all the while also being a superhero. It was huge burden to bear. Fortunately, Pepper Potts was kind enough to take Valdís in.

Pepper found a penthouse in New York City to live in while Val finished her last couple of years in high school, then she planned on moving her and her daughter, Morgan, all back to the Stark cabin. Although Valdís didn't feel comfortable enough to call Pepper family just yet, for it had only been a few months since she lost everyone, Pepper called Val her daughter. Pepper's heart was content and full, despite having lost her Tony.

"What about the masks? Over there?" Peter pointed. Val nodded and was practically skipping over to the stand.

Once they were over taking pictures, Val walked back over to the dock and spotted some crabs on the ground. "MJ would love to see this." Val picked up one of the crabs to analyze it.

As she was doing so, Peter noticed a sewage drain overflowing with water from the canal behind them. He cocked his head, curiously at the phenomenon. "Um.. Val?" Peter caught her attention.

Val turned around to look at him. "Yeah?" Before Peter could point to the sewage drain, a huge thunderous clap came from the canal in front of them. A large quantity of water shot up from the canal, almost as if a whale had jumped out of the water. Except, there was no whale.. and the water wasn't falling back down. The water seemed to have formed a shape above the natural water level. It looked like some kind of water god or monster. With the immense amount of water being shot up to create this creature, it began to flood the city around it.

People began to frantically scream and run around like headless chicken. The boats from the canal came flying to the streets as the water monster pushed all of the boats and docks away. One of the boats held Ned and Betty Brant, an annoying girl from school that Ned seemed to be infatuated with while on the trip; and the boat came crashing only a few feet from Val and Peter. The two ran over to them and helped them out. "Come on!" Peter led the young couple away from danger, pushing them in the direction the rest of the civilians were running— away from the water.

"What is that?!" Ned asked Peter and Val.

"I don't know!"
"What are you gonna do?!"
"I left my suit in the hotel room!"
"Why?!?"
"Because I'm on vacation, Ned! Go."

Ned and Peter's exchange was hasty, and within due time, Peter sent off Ned to go running. Peter turned to Val with a look that told her 'we know what we've go to do.' And all Val had to do was nod in return for the two to take off and do their typical superhero stuff.

Val looked around quickly and spotted a flag on one of the boats, she began to go for it, but Peter grabbed her arm and yanked her away. A huge wave of water came crashing in on them as the water monster was slamming his fists to wreak havoc upon the city. Val nearly drowned in the water, but Peter managed to keep them from getting hit too bad. They ran away from the water, deciding they could attack with a clearer plan from up above. "We've got to cover our faces!" Val reminded Peter as he activated his web shooters on his wrists while they ran to higher ground.

Once they reached a decent spot, they turned around and saw a green smoke come from the sky. It was another superhero that joined in to fight the water beast. His face was indistinguishable, but he seemed notable enough. Peter looked down on the ground and saw one mask on the ground from one of the vendors on the street. "You take it." Peter pointed to the mask.

"No, you take it, give me your flannel." Val ordered him, reaching out her hand so that he could place his shirt in it. Peter tore off his flannel, leaving his white shirt underneath on, and handed it to Val. She ripped it in half, then tied it around the lower half of her face, to give her the usual Inferno look while mostly hiding her face. It was enough to keep her unidentifiable as long as no one came near her. Peter threw on the mask.

Val hugged Peter tightly, and he placed one arm around her. He then shot a web using his free hand to swing up to the top of a tower. Once they reached the top, Val let go and began using her powers— which were powers given to her at birth using the tesseract by HYDRA, intended for the use of destruction— to shoot fire at the water creature. The water thing didn't like the fire coming at him and began to fling water at her.

Fortunately, the mysterious other superhero managed to distract the water creature again while Peter and Val recovered from being drenched by water. Peter swung away to get closer to the other hero to let him know that they were allies and could help, leaving Val behind on the bell tower.

Val continued to shoot fire at the water beast, but then, it began to move in on the city. It knocked into the bell tower Val was in and continued to move past her. "Oh no..." Val look down at the tower she was standing on, an enormous crack emerged in the center of it.

Luckily, Peter spotted it, too, and hurried over to keep it from falling. He used his webs to wrap up the crack and returned to the top of the tower to check on Val. "This thing isn't budging. Water doesn't mix well with fire. And I don't know what else I can use against him." Val ran a stressed hand through her head of hair.

"He looks like he's got it." Peter mentioned as he watched the mysterious hero attack the water beast with blasts of green energy. But, the mysterious hero then accidentally hit the bell tower the two were in with his blast of energy. The tower began to tilt, bound to fall, but Peter used his webs to try and balance the tower out. Val toppled over and began to slide to the end of the tower, but Peter grabbed her with his free hand to keep her from falling off.

The tower continued to fall, but, slowly since Peter was holding it with as much force as he could. Peter let out a grunt as he pulled his webs to try and lift the tower upright again, but it was no use. Between that and holding a dangling Valdís on his other hand, he didn't have enough strength to pull it back up. The tower was nearly at a 90° position against the ground when Peter has to finally let it go and fall. Peter and Val fell about a dozen feet onto the ground, the wind knocking out of them. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the fight against the water monster was over since the mysterious hero had defeated it. Val groaned and rolled over to see Peter in just as much pain as she was. "Ow." Peter groaned as he tried to get up.